What makes a perfect pub?

This debate has raged for many a year and in all likelihood will remain as such for evermore … not least as it comes down to p[personal choice!

However, there are certain factors such as a mixture of good ale, lager, wine and food.

In addition there is the opportunity for engaging and sympathetic conversation, hospitality and lighting.

Despite the recent economic gloom there are plenty of pubs still surviving and – in some case – thriving!

• The pub remains as an affordable luxury.
• You can eat good food for the fraction of the price you’d pay in a Michelin-starred restaurant.
• You can enjoy a pint or two in the company of like-minded souls, or maybe just spend some quiet time in the corner, pint or single malt to hand, perusing the paper and listening to the gentle ebb and flow of conversation.

One debate best joined in the conviviality of the pub is considering exactly what it is that constitutes a good one. In 1946, George Orwell entered the fray with his marvellously prescient essay “The Moon Under Water”. For him, the perfect London pub had to include draught stout, simple but filling food, a well-sized garden, Victorian decor, and no radio or piano to spoil the prospect of stimulating conversation. His perfect pub didn’t exist (though he knew of several that were close) but he wasn’t the first – or the last – to play this peculiar pub game.

This country has a wonderful variety of pubs:

Town pubs, city pubs, suburban pubs, seaside pubs, village pubs, in-the-middle-of-nowhere pubs including pubs on a roundabout! (As in Shepherd & Flock, Farnham) and pubby pubs.

All of which proves that the pub is very much alive and kicking here in Britain.
A feeling Hilaire Belloc drew on marvellously when he wrote the lines: “When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.” 

I’ll toast to that!